


Time Machines can be Meddlesome

by idinathoreau



Series: Hijinks of a Faulty TARDIS [1]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Handholding, Hugging, I just wanted a fic where the tardis messes with thasmin, Meddling TARDIS, Sharing a Bed, The TARDIS ships Thasmin, all fluff, and COMEDY, because that would be hilarious, laughing, pure fluff, ryan and graham are just kinda there, soft, thasmin, time machines can be stubborn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-24
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-08-28 20:48:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 10,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16730367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idinathoreau/pseuds/idinathoreau
Summary: The TARDIS is sick and tired of her idiot thief pining over their latest human stray and decides to do something about it.Hijinks ensue.Pretty soon, the Doctor is at the end of her rope, Yaz is just plain confused, and as per usual, Ryan and Graham have no idea what is going on but think everything is hilarious.





	1. Nothing to Worry About

**Author's Note:**

> Partially based on that one Doctor Who short _Clara and the TARDIS_ but expanded. I just needed a story like this in my Thasmin content. No idea how long it's going to be.

“Are you _sure_ you know how to fly this thing?”

“Of course!” The Doctor assured Graham, popping up from under the console with enormous goggles on her face. She saw Yasmin giggle at the sight of her and her face warmed considerably. Thankfully, with her eyes covered, no one could tell where she was looking.

“I’ve flown this ship for over two thousand years!” She assured the humans. “She and I are like one single being!”

The Time Lord slammed a hammer down on the console and the displays flickered with a burst of sparks. The whole ship jolted, sending the humans sprawling.

“Mind you, she does get touchy sometimes…” The Doctor admitted, helping Ryan back to his feet. “Has been known to toss us about, on bad days. Sorry about that Ryan.”

“You talk about this ship like it’s got a personality,” Ryan said, brushing himself off. “Like, it’s alive?” 

“Of course it’s alive.” The Doctor insisted, sounding insulted. “Best ship in the universe this! And all because she’s able to multitask!”

With a flourish, the Doctor tossed aside the hammer and yanked down the landing mechanism. The ship bounced once, then shuddered into a more stable flight pattern. Huh, so _not_ the landing mechanism. Probably the stabilizers instead.

“There we are.” The Doctor dusted off her hands, as if that were exactly what she had intended to do “finally found a pocket of stable time-winds. Should be easy going for awhile.” She popped the goggles off of her face and snapped them onto her head.

“Right, well this is too much excitement for me.” Graham said, picking his way around the console like he expected to be thrown around any second. “I’m going to go back to the library and sit in that really comfy chair until we land.”

“I’m with you.” Ryan concurred. “I’d much prefer to be strapped down if we get tossed about like that again.” The two of them tramped from the console room, their footsteps receding down the long hallways.

“How do you know what to push and pull?”

The Doctor turned to Yaz, beaming (and privately thrilled that the young woman had elected to stay in the console room with her).

“Well, it’s not so much knowing as it is, feeling.” She emphasized, stroking the console. “She’s as much in my head as I am.”

Yaz furrowed her brow. “What, like you two can talk telepathically?”

“She _is_ telepathic.” The Doctor explained. She tapped her own temple. “she’s able to read our thoughts, translate languages around, and even sometimes talk directly to us.”

Yasmin glanced around nervously but didn’t seem to terribly bothered learning that the TARDIS could see inside her mind. “That is proper alien…” She whispered, more to herself than to the Doctor. 

The Doctor grinned, her eyes lingering on Yaz’s face for several seconds longer than necessary. Yaz ducked her head shyly but glanced back at the Doctor as the Time Lord busied herself at the console. A comfortable silence fell over them, broken only by occasional whirs and beeps from the ship around them. Yaz imagined the ship was purring in contentment, glad to be flying through time.

Yaz rested her hand on the console, as tentatively as if petting a strange cat. “So what does she say?” She asked the Doctor.

The Time Lord looked surprised at the question. “Oh this and that…” She replied, waving her hand in one of her non-answers. “She tends to be quiet unless something’s either wrong or she’s upset about something. Not known for her conversation, this one.”

The Doctor pulled another lever, this one resting just above where Yaz’s hand rested.

It was just a twitch, easily blamed on a miscalculated distance. But as the lever slipped down, perhaps just a hint further than normal, the Doctor’s fingers brushed the back of Yaz’s hand. 

The Time Lord’s breath hitched and she pulled back slightly, not allowing the contact to linger. 

The machine around them whirred louder, before settling back into its comforting purr.

The lighting in the console room was too low for anyone to see, but Yaz felt a blush creeping across her face. 

“Could you go get Graham and Ryan?” The Doctor asked, her voice sounding slightly off. “We should be landing soon. Fantastic planet coming up, tons of crazy extremes side by side, you lot are going to love it.”

Yaz nodded, not trusting her own voice and crossed the room, vanishing down the hallway.

The Doctor remained at the console but now she was eying it suspiciously. “Did you…?”

The TARDIS was silent, in apparent apathy to whatever was going on. 

After a moment’s silence, the Doctor just shrugged and reset the coordinates for the Planet of Two Minds.

It was just a brush, an accident. Nothing to lose her head about.


	2. A Brief History No One Asked For

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one got a little more Rated T than I had originally planned...warning for...implied porn I guess?

Yasmin often found herself perusing the TARDIS library when they had rare moments to breathe between adventures. Today seemed as good a time as any to get lost in the stacks, as they were heading back to Sheffield after an incredible time on Asteroid Alpha-Atlanta in the year 2.7/apple/4. The entire thing was overtaken by an enormous carnival celebrating some strange alien holiday that was a cross between New Years and, oddly enough, an alien equivalent to the 4th of July. It had been incredible, and raised far more questions about the races involved than Yaz was prepared for. But upon leaving, she had realized that a police exam was waiting for her upon return and decided to spend her time in the library on the off chance there were any books on UK law enforcement.

Yaz shuffled her feet as she crossed the archway into the grand library. 

She’d much rather be back in the console room, watching the beautifully-insane Time Lord driving dance around the controls and possibly accidentally brush her hand again…

Shaking her head, she focused on the arches overhead, losing herself in the impossible design and estimates of just how many volumes the place could possibly contain. No point wallowing about contact that may or may not happen between her and a certain woman…

None at all.

Yaz glanced over at some of the tables squeezed in between shelves. The ship often had interesting volumes easily displayed, as if it wanted her to see what it had that she would enjoy reading. She was rather hoping to find such a volume on law today.

That or a topic that was sufficiently distracting.

Spotting a book on the table closest to her, Yaz wandered over and took a seat.

“What have you got for me today?” She wondered aloud, picking up the slim volume. A glossy title across the cover read: _A Brief History of Gallifreyan Alliances_. Looks like she was in for some history lessons today, rather than review.

Yaz cracked open the tiny book. To her surprise, it wasn’t full of pages. But that was all she was able to register before an assault of images and sensations flooded her mind: _Men becoming women in flashes of golden light, complicated anatomy that changed mid-movement, thoughts passing from one partner to another with a mere touch, conflicting vibrations colliding and setting both partners quivering…_

“Yaz?”

The PC yelped, as if caught doing something unseemly. She slammed the book closed, practically laying on top of it. 

“You alright?” Ryan poked his head around the stack next to her, eying her suspiciously. 

“Fine!” Yaz insisted, her voice squeaking slightly as her thighs rubbed together. “Just, you startled me is all.” She tried to get her breath back under control, blinking the last of the book’s images from her mind.

“Right.” Ryan didn’t seem convinced but he thankfully didn’t push the issue. “We’re back.” He informed her, pointing back towards the console room. “Or the Doctor reckons we are. You all set to go? You've been here for almost an hour.”

“Yep.” Yaz leapt up immediately, knocking the book facedown onto her chair. “SO ready. Time to go.” On shaky legs, she stalked right past Ryan and led the way back to the entrance, trying very hard not to think about fingers, lips, or telepathy.

Yaz offered the Doctor only a nod in farewell, not trusting her voice for a goodbye. She rushed home, ignoring her mother’s called greeting and her sister’s challenging eyebrow to lock herself in her room. 

Once there, she buried her head under her pillow and let out a long, heavy scream. Her brain felt heavy and her lower half itchy.

“Whhhyyyy did I read that?”

***

After the humans left, the Doctor set new time coordinates and went for a wander. She was only moving in time slightly (F. Scott Fitzgerald _did_ promise her a lunch date during his visit to England) so she felt free to wander her ship.

As she passed the library, a familiar smell caught her attention. The Doctor back-tracked, sniffing as she entered the large room. Was that…Yaz’s perfume? Had she left a sweater behind again?

She followed the faint scent to a table in the history section, where a lone book was left abandoned on a chair.

“Hello there!” She called, lifting up the tome and turning it over. “What have we got…oh cheese and crackers!”

Her face burning, she practically threw the book across the room.

“What are you doing outside my bedroom?!”

And more importantly, why was Yaz’s scent all over the place here?


	3. Where Did THAT Come From?

“It’s freezing in here!” Ryan complained, rubbing his arms as they stepped back inside the TARDIS. “And this is _after_ we left that ice planet.”

“Feels fine to me.” The Doctor answered, sauntering in behind him with her hands tucked deep inside her coat. 

“Sure, but you’re an alien.” Yaz offered, pulling the door closed as Graham stepped inside. “You don’t have Ryan’s fragile sensitivity to temperature.”

“Oi!” Ryan pointed at Yaz, indignant. “I don’t go about spilling all your secrets from primary school!” 

Yaz cackled, drawing the interested eye of the Time Lord.

“Could stand to turn the heat up a bit though, Doc.” Graham commented, pulling his coat slightly tighter about himself. “I’m with the icicle boy here. Yes, your nan told me that story.” He said, as Ryan opened his mouth to complain again. “Not a very adventurous child were you?”

“This aint about me!” Ryan hissed but folded his arms around himself, pouting instead of complaining.

“You all should just be better dressed.” The Doctor suggested, setting their coordinates and pulling the lever. The TARDIS took off with a jolt. “Like Yaz, she’s come prepared.” The Time Lord winked at the young woman (dressed smartly in a thick wool cardigan) and gave her a soft nudge with her elbow.

Yaz smiled at the Doctor, completely missing how Graham rolled his eyes at the pair of them.

“I didn’t think to bring a flippin’ coat with me.” Ryan mumbled, rubbing his arms again.

“Oi! Watch the language!” The Doctor and Graham chastised him in unison. 

Yaz laughed again, drawing a warm glow to the Doctor’s face. 

“If you’re so chilled, Ryan, check out the rack over there.” The Doctor suggested, gesturing vaguely behind her to a coat rack in the shadows of a column piled high with various pieces of clothing. “I’m sure you can find something to keep you warm.” She was already buried deep in the console, fiddling with something out of sight under a section she had pulled up.

Yaz and Graham got to chatting as Ryan stomped over to the rack and began pulling things off of it. They’d barely begun to reminisce about the winters back in Sheffield when Ryan interrupted them.

“Hey Yaz? Isn’t this yours?”

Every eye in the room shot to his, one pair faster than the other two. 

Ryan was holding aloft a woman’s sweater, a dull pink affair that looked very old and well-loved. It was a bit oversized but whether by design or from years of use it was hard to tell.

Yaz stepped closer, peering at the article of clothing. “Oh my God…is that…?” She recognized it. She’d been wearing it the night she’d met the Doctor. After she’d got off duty and changed, she’d been wearing this all through their adventure with the Stenza. 

A loud banging noise and a yelp of pain echoed throughout the console room. Yaz turned to see the Doctor rubbing the back of her head, apparently having just knocked it on the very section of console she’d been rummaging under.

“It’s Yaz’s.” The Time Lord clarified, still wincing from her collision.

“What’s it doing here?” Ryan asked, echoing Yaz's thoughts.

“Great question!” The Doctor practically shouted, bounding over towards him. “Why would it be here and _not where I put it_?” She said these last few words through her teeth. She took the article of clothing from Ryan, almost ripping it from his hands. “Don’t really think it suits you mate, just sayin’. You’re more of a blue.” She turned back to Yaz, her face sheepish. “I just found it one day…you left it behind, probably after our adventure in Alabama. Was quite hot there after all, so no need for a sweater! I was gonna give it back but…”

“It’s fine Doctor.” Yaz told her, cutting off her rant.

Raising his eyebrows, Graham tried to make eye contact with Ryan but the lad was looking between the two women, as if they were doing something he couldn’t quite comprehend.

Wordlessly, the Doctor held out the sweater. Their fingers brushed gently as Yaz took it. The Time Lord felt both of her hearts simultaneously skip their beat, giving her the sensation of being about to regenerate. 

“Thanks…for keeping it safe.” Yaz breathed, a faint rosy coloration noticeable on her cheeks.

The Doctor nodded curtly. “My pleasure. Gotta make sure you stay warm…” Her words were pointed but her voice was soft.

Ryan coughed indignantly. “Sure, gotta make sure Yaz is nice and toasty. Meanwhile, us menfolk will just be freezing solid.”

Graham roared with unexpected laughter. “That would be an improvement for you mate!”

“It was one time!” Ryan insisted, snatching a parka from the rack and stalking off to continue his argument with Graham. “And it were just a joke gone wrong…”

With a shy smile, Yaz stepped back from the Doctor, returning to her place at the console.

The moment was forgotten as more arguments about the temperature and (Ryan’s history with icicles) dominated the conversation during their surprisingly smooth trip. 

But as Yaz went to fold the sweater and place it near the entrance (to be sure it wouldn’t be left behind again), she caught a whiff of the fabric and her breath hitched again.

It smelled like the Doctor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Doctor...that's gay.


	4. We Should Argue More Often

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No couple is perfect. Yaz and the Doctor argue. Mostly about who should save whom when they’re both being stubborn and protective of the other.

“You didn’t listen to me.”

“If I had, you’d be dead!”

“No I wouldn’t!”

“You don’t know that!”

Ryan plugged his ears, sick of this cycle of blame. “You two have been going at it for almost an hour now,” he called across the control room, “can you just admit that you were both wrong and everything worked out?”

Yaz and the Doctor glared at him, nearly identical exasperated expressions on their face. But as angry as they were, they were still only inches away from each other, the space between them rippling with tension. The TARDIS was even responding to it, making more hissing noises than usual.

Their trip to Depot 14 had been an emotional one: Graham had been kidnapped by a race of enormous, idiom-obsessed beings and the effort to rescue him had cost the Doctor a rare Gountanian artifact she’d had for centuries and Ryan and Yaz several bruises each. Yaz was still limping from wrenching her ankle while rushing back to haul the Doctor safely inside the TARDIS doors after a blast from a plasma grenade had temporarily incapacitated the Time Lord.

It was a miracle they were all alive and intact. But it had only taken the Doctor five minutes to start laying into Yaz for endangering herself and the TARDIS to rescue her.

Graham held up his hands. “Ryan’s right ladies; can’t we just all agree that everything could have been a lot worse?”

“Yeah,” Yaz agreed, “it would have been if we’d left ya behind.” She glared defiantly at the Doctor as the woman rounded on her again. 

“I told you when you came aboard that I couldn’t guarantee your safety.” She reminded the human, her eyes flashing with fear and pain. “Now I’m tryin’ my best, but I really can’t promise you’ll be safe if you don’t obey me when I tell you to run!”

“Maybe I don’t need your protection.” Yaz leveled back at her, her face inches from the Doctor’s nose. Her injured ankle was bent slightly, taking away some of her height. “I’m a copper, I know what I can handle.”

The Doctor’s eyes drifted to Yaz’s ankle. “Not on Depot 14 you didn’t…” 

Graham could see both women bristling, gearing up for another few minutes of this bickering and shook his head, wishing beyond hope that they would just cut their losses and be thankful none of them had died back there.

The ship took that exact moment to spin, violently pitching itself at nearly 90 degrees. Ryan snagged the back of Graham’s jacket, barely managing to keep the two of them upright against the console. Yaz on the other hand, well away from the stable console and any convenient railings or pillars to grab, found herself pinwheeling her arms violently, stumbling backwards towards the doors of the TARDIS. Her bad ankle gave out and she fell with a cry.

But as she braced herself to smash into the thin wooden doors, a firm hand grabbed her by the wrist, halting her movement. Yaz, her feet well off the ground now, looked up into the intense eyes of the Time Lord, resolutely grounded against a pillar and holding Yaz in place with one arm. 

The Doctor tugged just as the ship righted itself and the extra momentum was just enough to send Yaz pitching forward. Before she could even register that she was falling, something caught her and held her upright. Yaz fell against her savior, her heart racing.

“I’ve got you.” A voice assured her, the rumble of it reverberating in her chest. 

_Oh._

Yaz faltered even more, feeling her legs turn to jelly. She was pressed against the Doctor, supported only by the woman’s impossibly strong arms. She could feel a racing double-pulse in the ribcage pressed against her chest. 

Thankfully, the Doctor didn’t seem at all affected by the sudden collapse of the young PC against her. Her arms wound around Yaz’s waist, holding them tight together.

Yaz knew she should pull away. For all their adventures together, she and the Doctor had never actually hugged. The Time Lord wasn’t exactly forthcoming with displays of affection. She only touched people when she needed to protect them, like when she’d pressed her whole body against Yaz to keep the Pting away from her. But she couldn’t pull away. The Doctor’s arms were around her, keeping her there. Hesitantly, she wrapped her own arms around the woman’s back, her chin just high enough to press into the Time Lord’s shoulder. 

She swore she felt the alien relax against her and an involuntary sigh escaped Yaz, her warm breath ghosting over the fabric on Doctor’s shoulder. Her heart slowed at the way her head fit against the alien’s shoulder. Unlike their accidental hand-brushes (more frequent since that first one in the console room than before it seemed), this contact both soothed and excited her. The Doctor was a calming presence when this close, like the eye of a storm.

They embraced for several infinite seconds, utterly lost in each other. Yaz felt the Doctor’s chest rise against her own, the woman inhaling as if to say something.

“You two alright?” Came Ryan’s voice, shattering the illusion of solitude. The Doctor pulled away from Yaz quickly but one hand drifted along her arm, ensuring that Yaz could stand again.

“We’re…fine.” The Doctor said, her voice sounding strained. “Yaz almost took a spill, but I caught her.” With a furtive glance at Yaz, the supportive touch vanished.

“Yeah…” Yaz said, her heart rate slowly increasing as the Doctor’s warmth faded from her. “Thanks, Doctor.” 

She got a soft smile in return, one that she knew meant that all was forgiven, even if she had ignored the Doctor’s warnings to return to the TARDIS back on Depot 14.

“That sure was lucky.” Ryan commented. “Glad no one got hurt from that.”

Everyone gathered back together at the console, shaken but unharmed by the ship’s violent maneuvering. 

While Ryan checked on Yaz’s ankle, Graham found himself watching the Doctor. The woman was staring at a row of flashing buttons on the control column intently, one finger tapping a muted rhythm on the console. 

“You okay Doc?” Graham asked, wondering if it was his place to comment on how easily the alien and Yaz had resolved their spat after that hug. Not that he minded. Their fights could be downright scary with how intense the two women got without raising their voices. 

The Doctor shook herself, her cheeks slightly flushed. “Yeah just…thinking about something.” She continued to shoot suspicious looks at the console as they flew, her fingers tapping impatiently as if trying to work out the answer to a difficult problem.

The rest of their flight to the Zorblatte System was uneventful. But every time the Doctor caught Yaz looking at her, she held her gaze for a moment longer than she had before.

Yaz smiled every time.


	5. Two Lefts and a Right

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yaz just wanted to sleep...

Yaz swore the architecture was messing with her. 

“Where is it?” She muttered angrily, peering into yet another junk storeroom. “I swear it was just here!” She took the next corner at a run, counted her doors and opened the third one to reveal…a room full of doors. Yaz sagged. It was like the ship itself was laughing at her.

She knew the route: from the console, it was two lefts, a right, then door number 3. She should not be getting lost.

“I’m never getting up in the middle of the night again!” She declared to herself, glaring as she passed the console room again. She’d been wandering in circles for what felt like an hour after getting up to use the bathroom. 

This was the third time this week she’d gotten lost on her way back to her bedroom. Usually after some fumbling around, she would manage to find the right door and enter the cozy little room the Doctor had let her pick several weeks back. But tonight, such sweet relief eluded her. 

“Aurrghh.” Yaz moaned, finding herself back at the console yet again. “I jus’ want ta sleep!” She half-hoped the Doctor was fiddling away under the controls and would pop up to keep her company. But the Time Lord was disappointingly absent.

Turning around, Yaz set off again, this time focusing all her efforts on following the trail: two lefts, one right, one…two…three. 

To her great relief, when she opened this door, there was a bed behind it. Without even bothering to flip on the light, she collapsed on the mattress, letting out a heavy sigh. 

_Finally…_

She rolled over slightly, punching her pillow into a better shape.

“Quit your shufflin’…” A sleepy voice commanded her. 

“Doctor?!” Yaz shot up, her heart racing. The aforementioned Time Lord sat up, eying her through half-closed lids. “What are you doin’ in my bed?” Yaz demanded ignoring the fluttering feeling in her stomach and the warmth of the sheets under them. 

The Doctor looked confused. “Your bed?” She asked, glancing around with tousled hair. “This is still my room…right?” Her voice was husky with sleep…making it difficult for Yaz to focus. The Time Lord threw the covers back, revealing herself to be clad in only a pair of boxer briefs and a baggy t-shirt Yaz recalled from their trip to 1977 Woodstock.

“Wait? What?” Now desperate for any distraction that wasn’t the Doctor in her pajamas (how did the woman manage to even make sleepwear look so good?!), Yaz’s eyes darted around the room. 

When she realized what she had missed in her tired desperation for a bed, her heart jumped to her throat. This was definitely not her small rug-draped nook. It was a bedroom piled high with scrap metal, various tools, clothing of any kind imaginable, numerous books, and a queen-sized bed…containing the Doctor.

Yaz stumbled backwards, nearly tripping over a disassembled power converter. “I…I’m so sorry, I…I guess I got turned around in the dark hallway…I’m so sorry Doctor!” She fled the room before she could see the forgiving look on the Doctor’s face. 

She slammed the door behind her, her face red. Huffing heavily to avoid her mortified tears from falling, Yaz stalked back to the console room and collapsed against a pillar. She didn’t think she could sleep now.

Not without that image of the Doctor in her pants invading her dreams.

***

Several days later, Ryan glanced up to see Yaz stumbling into the TARDIS kitchen. 

“Wow Yaz, looks like someone had a rough night.” He teased.

Yaz collided with the table but merely grunted and threw herself down in a chair, her head flopping onto the table. 

“You have no idea.” She groaned into her arms. “I swear to god the hallways change whenever I walk down them. The rooms must be moving; I haven’t found my bedroom in two nights!”

Ryan frowned, a little concerned for his friend. “Really?” He took a sip of tea. “I’ve had no problems.”

“Could I have your room than?” Yaz pleaded, looking up.

Ryan was about to laugh but then he saw just how utterly exhausted Yaz looked. He stood up, moving to make her a cup of tea.

“If it’s such a problem, why not sleep in the library instead?” He offered her, “Graham and the Doctor fall asleep in there loads of times.” 

“You think I haven’t tried?” Yaz demanded, looking positively miserable. “I cant find it either. It’s like I’m just walking on a treadmill whenever I go anywhere and every door I open leads to…” But she cut herself off, her face coloring.

“Leads to where?” Ryan asked, handing her the mug. 

Yaz was tight-lipped, sipping her tea in an effort to hide her flushing cheeks.

Now Ryan actually stifled a chuckle. Was Yaz…really blushing? She hadn’t been this bothered since that time the Doctor had come out of the river soaking wet yammering on about Houdini. 

“Morning!” Came a false, cheery voice. The Doctor slid into the kitchen, wearing a grungy t-shirt over her usual bottoms. She paused when she saw Yaz, a worried look crossing her face. “Any luck finding your bedroom Yaz?”

To Ryan’s surprise, Yaz leapt up like she’d been electrocuted and stumbled out of the room, taking the mug of tea with her.

“What was that about?” The Doctor asked Ryan.

“Yaz says she’s havin’ trouble finding her bedroom.” Ryan informed the Time Lord, taking his empty mug to the sink to wash it. “Claims the rooms keep moving.”

She sighed. “Oh not this again…” The Doctor muttered. She glared at the walls of the kitchen.

“Everything alright?” Ryan asked, slightly scared of the anger on the woman’s face. 

“Fine.” The Doctor emphasized. “I just think someone has to be nicer to Yaz…”

She stalked out of the kitchen, leaving a very confused Ryan in her wake.

***

On the fifth night, Yaz was determined. She was not going to cave and ask the Doctor to drop her home just so she could sleep. She was going to find her damn bedroom, no matter the consequences.

And she was definitely _not_ going to end up in the Doctor’s room again tonight.

Arming herself with a ball of string she’d nicked from their last adventure, she tied one end of it around a column in the console room. Then, giggling like a mad woman (five nights of terrible sleep would do that to you…) she set off down the corridor, always keeping the string unspooling in her left hand. 

This time, she counted, tied the string to the doorknob, backtracked, then returned. All was the same. 

Yaz laughed in relief. She’d got it this time! Untying the string, she cracked open the door and peered inside. 

She actually started crying when she recognized the tapestries on the walls. 

Her feet dragging, she labored over and flopped down on the bed, exhaustion eating away at her mind. She would have curled up and finally gone to sleep right there had she not heard the quiet breathing coming from the other side of the bed.

Without looking, Yaz felt the bed next to her. Her hand encountered an arm. “…Doctor?”

There was a heavy sigh. “…yup.”

Groaning, Yaz made to sit up, too tired to even be embarrassed this time. This was just cruel now. Here she was: resigned to yet again wander the halls until she found something to sleep on. Maybe this time she’d actually find a couch. But before she could stand, a gentle hand on her arm stopped her.

“Just stay.” The Doctor mumbled, sounding exhausted herself. “We’ll sort it out…tomorrow…” her hand fell off of Yaz’s arm, the Time Lord already dead asleep.

Yaz couldn’t find it in her to refuse. She carefully lay back down, furiously aware of how little space there was between them in the smaller bed. But her head had barely hit the pillow — and the Doctor’s comforting scent barely entered her nostrils — before she too was dead to the world.


	6. Be My Light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Graham's starting to think something's up with the TARDIS.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based on a tumblr prompt from an anonymous source: 
> 
> _The Doctor has tapeta lucida (night vision), but none of Team TARDIS knows this, until they all end up in the dark with a not so potent light source._
> 
> I am still taking prompts! See notes at the end for a link!

“Be honest with us Doc, this thing is just one blown fuse away from a useless hunk of metal isn’t it?”

“Oi, Graham! Don’t insult the best ship in the universe!”

“I wont have to if it ever works correctly!”

“You have no reason to think that I didn’t mean to do this.”

“Seeing as generally, any number of unexpected things happen when we’re on this ship, I think we have a pretty good reason to think you didn’t intend for this to happen.”

“Oi! Ryan! Who’s side are you on?”

“Never mind the sides, let’s just find this thing and be done with it!”

There was a bang and a yelp of pain. “Ow! Cant we get some light back in here?”

“What are you talking about?” The Doctor’s voice floated through the gloom. “I can see just fine!”

“Well I cant! It’s pitch dark in here!” Ryan complained. “Are you sure that thing is in here?”

“Almost positive.” The Doctor replied, her voice now halfway across the room. She shifted something with a crash. “...mostly positive.”

Graham and Ryan gave a collective sigh into the dark. 

Upon joining the Doctor this week, they’d been startled to find the Time Lord crawling around the ducts of the TARDIS. From her brief, shouted explanation, they gathered that a small reptilian-like alien (that the Doctor called a Glodragan) had escaped onboard whilst the Doctor was trying to relocate it. So now they were all sealed in, searching for the thing in the depths of the ship. But just as they had been getting close to cornering it, all of the lights around them had blinked out. Unfortunately, the room itself was full of various clutter and the blind humans were having a difficult time navigating without stubbed toes and bruised shins.

“How can you see in this Doc?” Graham demanded, vainly checking his pockets for a torch. “It’s pitch black.”

“Don’t exaggerate Graham.” The Doctor chastised him. “Get over here and help me shift this coil.”

“Where?” Graham demanded, spinning in place. “I cant see you!”

The Doctor paused, as if something had just occurred to her. “Wait…you lot really cant see?”

“Not a thing.” Ryan confirmed, swearing loudly as he stubbed his toe again.

The Time Lord gasped in exhilaration. “WAIT. Does this mean…?” She made several loud happy noises. “Brilliant! I’ve never had this before, is tapeta lucida a woman thing?”

“What’s that?” Ryan asked, shaking his foot.

“It’s extra tissue in my retinas that reflects more light.” The Doctor explained, her voice still shaking with excitement. “And I’ve never had it before! This is great! Being a woman is fantastic, isn’t it Yaz?”

Yaz did not respond. 

“Yaz?” The Doctor called again, gazing around the cluttered room. While her vision wasn’t perfect, she could still make out shapes and shadows. And she couldn’t see a Yaz-shaped shadow.

“Yaz!” She called again, now worried. She’d been right next to her…where could she have gone?

Bustling past Ryan and Graham (nearly knocking Graham over in the process), she pulled out her sonic screwdriver. The tiny light from its ignition was blinding in the dark space. She scanned around the room, listening and watching intently.

“…Doctor?” The feeble voice came from her left and she rounded on it immediately.

“Yaz?” Stowing the device, she leapt over a stack of coiled rope, her vision honing in on a small figure crouched near a pile of blankets. The figure said nothing but the Doctor could see it trembling.

She doubled her pace, crouching down beside the shivering form. “Oh Yaz…” She murmured. 

The young woman was folded in on herself, hugging her knees and staring around frantically. She flinched when the Doctor laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Yaz…don’t worry.” The Time Lord said, trying to sound reassuring. “This little guy isn’t like the Pting. He’s quite harmless, just looking for some plutonium to curl up on…”

Yaz didn’t answer. This close to her, the Time Lord’s superior vision could make out sweat on the young woman’s forehead and the flush on her cheeks. Now considerably concerned, the Doctor pulled out her sonic again and scanned the young woman. The second the light split the darkness, Yaz honed in on it. The girl let out a strangled, wordless moan of relief. 

Comprehension washed over the Time Lord, followed quickly by overwhelming compassion.

“It’s alright Yaz…I’m here.” Keeping her sonic lit in one hand, she reached for Yaz’s hand with the other. When their fingers met, the young woman clung to her. The Doctor squeezed Yaz’s hand. “Come on. I’ll keep the light on.” She whispered to her. With gentle motions, she pulled the young woman to her feet and held her close against her. With her sonic illuminated, she led her out of the dark room with calm, certain steps. Beyond the storeroom, the lights seemed fine.

As the soft light of the TARDIS hallway washed over them, Yaz released a shaky breath. “Thank you…” She murmured. Without apparent thought or concern, she laid her head on the Doctor’s shoulder.

The Time Lord smiled at her. “Anytime.” She whispered.

***

Back in the darkness, Ryan turned to where he thought Graham was. 

“Did they just leave us here?”

Graham sighed, in the complete opposite direction of where Ryan had just tried to look. “Yes. I think they did." 

They were both silent for a moment.

"Any idea where the exit is?” Graham asked.

At that exact moment, the lights blazed back on.

Graham rolled his eyes. “Of course…”


	7. Smoke and Flames

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yaz is woken by the smell of smoke.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short one this time! 
> 
> Also, this fic now has a sister fic: _Proximity Alarm_. It's a song fic where the TARDIS tries to provide an appropriate soundtrack to a budding Thasmin. Musical hijinks ensue. You can find it in the same series as this work!

There was smoke everywhere.

Yaz thought she had been dreaming the scent but in a moment of lucidity, she realized the Doctor had never taken them to a planet of emerald beaches (and lain beside her in the sand in a gorgeous yet still somehow very conservative swimsuit and why the heck would there even be smoke at a beach anyway?!) and she had snapped awake. 

Her heart racing and her mind whirling with possible worst-case scenarios, she darted from her room, her bare feet pounding along the dimly-lit corridors. 

“Doctor!” She called, covering her face with her sleeve. The smoke intensified as she dashed towards the entrance, stinging Yaz’s eyes. “Doctor?” Can you hear me?”

She envisioned the console room on fire, all of them trapped as their one exit burned. She pictured the Doctor unconscious and mentally began reviewing her CPR training. Whatever had happened, she would protect them all.

Yaz took the corner at top speed, slamming painfully into the wall but too wired with adrenaline to feel the impact. She skidded into the console room, missing barreling into the Doctor by inches. 

“Yaz?” The woman seemed surprised to see her (at least as best Yaz could tell through the Time Lord’s ridiculous goggles). “What are you doing up? It’s 2am.” She placed something down on the TARDIS console. 

Yaz faltered, her brain still catching up to her body. Aside from missing her coat, the woman looked the same as always. “Doctor!” She was so relieved to see her, unharmed — and not on fire — that she launched herself at the Time Lord, hugging her tightly. 

“Uhh Hi Yaz…” The Doctor held her briefly but gently pushed the young woman back to get a better look at her. “You alright?”

“Doctor…” Yaz was still panting from her sprint. “ wokeup…andIsmelled…smokeand…youweren’tthere…soIran…what happened?” She glanced around, looking for signs of damage or injury. “What’s going on? Did we crash?”

The Doctor scoffed. “Oh no. No crashing. Hardly ever crashes, this trusty TARDIS.”

Yaz furrowed her brow in confusion, feeling a bit foolish now that she’d caught her breath. “Then…why does something smell like it’s been burning?”

“Oh that was me.” The Doctor said off-handedly. She lifted the goggles from her face and Yaz picked out the distinct rings of soot they left around the alien’s eyes. Her gaze shifted downwards and she saw that the Doctor was wearing an absolutely ridiculous pair of oven mitts with penguins on them. Both looked like they had recently been on fire.

“What…?”

The alien picked up what she had put on the console earlier. “Look Yaz!” The Doctor beamed, holding up a tray covered in a charred black mess. “I made cookies!”

Yaz sagged, her exhaustion catching up with her all at once. Her shoulder ached where she’d hit the wall.

“Cookies?” She repeated, in utter disbelief. 

The alien nodded enthusiastically. “Yes.” She plucked a smoking lump of coal-black gunk from the tray and chewed on it. “Sorry, did I wake you? Had a bit of an argument with the solar oven but don’t worry, I think I sorted it.” She held out the tray. “Since you’re here, would you like a cookie? They’re snickerdoodles!” She peered at the mess on the tray. “…I think. Pretty sure.”

Yaz couldn’t help it; she laughed.

In the morning, Graham and Ryan found them (and a tray of unidentified black crumbs) dozing peacefully against each other under the TARDIS console.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based on a prompt from whenthewickedplay on Tumblr.
> 
> https://whenthewickedplay.tumblr.com/


	8. Incoming!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something’s up with Yaz and the Doctor. Ryan just doesn’t know what.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This could really go in either of my _Hijinks of a Faulty TARDIS_ fics but I liked it better in this one.

Ryan knew something was off. He just couldn’t quite place what.

“No…try that one…” The Doctor pointed at a switch on the console. Yaz obediently flipped it. The two of them paused for a moment, seemingly listening for something. 

As one, they sighed in aggravation. 

“Well that’s just great.” Yaz practically shouted, shaking her head. “What do we do now?”

“I’m working on it!” The Doctor shouted back, darting around the console to furiously stab at a row of buttons. “We’ll figure this out Yaz!”

“The sooner the better!” Yaz shouted back, crossing her arms but following the Time Lord around. 

Graham crossed the console room, gently nudging Ryan as he sat down next to him. “Do you know what’s up with them two?” He asked, munching on a sarnie. Ryan wrinkled his nose at his Grandad’s snack. At least this one was fresh. 

He shook his head. “No clue.” The two of them watched the women for a moment.

Some variation of this had been going on for the past two minutes, ever since the Yaz had slid up next to the Doctor at the console and gently hip-checked her. Since then, they’d been acting really weird, growing increasingly frustrated as they ran around the console, pressing every combination of buttons they could find.

“You lot need any help?” Graham called, polishing off his sandwich as the women tried simultaneously pressing ten different buttons at once. 

Both of them jumped like they’d forgotten anyone else was there.

“We’re fine!” The Doctor shouted, much louder than necessary, even with the space in the console room. “Just tryin’ ta fix sommat!”

“Fix what?” Graham asked, utterly confused. But they were already back at the console, their heads together. But since neither of them could apparently speak at any level under full-throated shouting, Ryan and Graham heard everything.

“What caused it this time?” The Doctor demanded, tapping her forehead with her sonic. “What was happening right before it started?”

Ryan stood up, walking a little closer. All he could see in front of them was the console with random lights flashing all over it.

Yaz threw up her hands. “I don’t know! We were talking at the console; you said something about ‘teaching Picasso all he knows’ and then the beat came in…”

“Maybe it was the hip check?” Ryan offered, leaning against a nearby column.

Both women turned on him instantly. “What?” Yaz demanded, her face darkening. The Doctor was regarding Ryan like she had no idea what he was talking about.

“Yaz bumped you with her hip.” Ryan pointed out. “Then you two got all weird." He shrugged. "Maybe that was it?”

The entire room was silent for a beat, both Yaz and the Doctor blinking comically like they’d just been tossed out into the sunlight. 

“Nah…that cant be it.” The Doctor finally said, brushing it off.

Yaz nodded frantically in agreement. “Definitely not. Nope.”

They turned back to the console, walking around the side like they were tied to each other. 

With a mighty whirring sound, the TARDIS pitched wildly, the floor underfoot shifting dangerously. It wasn’t so unusual, honestly the ship was more often jerking around than flying smoothly these days. But something about this just seemed a little too planned. 

Ryan (having picked up on the subtle hints of incoming turbulence days ago) had steadied himself against the column and avoided tumbling to the floor. Graham, still seated, merely slid a few feet to the side before bumping gently into the bottom of the staircase. Himself being safe and Graham not in danger, Ryan had nothing to concern himself with except the fate of his female friends.

Yaz fell back against a column next to her, using it to steady herself. Pitching wildly, the Doctor fell into her, barely stopping herself from slamming right into the poor girl. 

The ship abruptly righted itself, humming smugly. 

Ryan watched with raised eyebrows as Yaz and the Doctor stared at each other.

“Uhhh.” That particularly inarticulate statement came from the Time Lord in question, unable to peel her eyes away from the lips she was currently only ten centimeters from. Yaz was staring right back (one hand helplessly pressed to the Doctor’s chest to keep her from collapsing completely into her) watching the other woman with an expression of anxious trust.

The console room was entirely silent for a moment, except for a few cheerful whirls from the ship around them. Something on the console clicked and the sound of a record being lowered onto a turntable split the silence. 

Ryan’s mouth fell open as a familiar synthetic bass line began to play.

  
Watching every motion

In my foolish lover's game

On this endless ocean

Finally lovers know no shame

Turning and returning

To some secret place inside

Watching in slow motion

As you turn around and say

 

Take my breath away

Take my breath away  


Ryan shook his head. Unbelievable.

The Doctor had never mentioned the _amazing_ sound system she had in here! Why hadn’t she let him play his music from here?

He rounded on her but his indignation died in his throat upon seeing that they hadn’t even moved. Yaz and the Doctor didn’t seem to notice the music.

Ryan saw Yaz swallow hard. “Doctor…” She began, her hand shifting slightly against the other woman’s chest. “You…”

Her words seemed to break the woman out of whatever trance she was in and the Time Lord immediately sprung back from Yaz as if she’d been burned. The music abruptly faded, almost with an edge of anti-climactic dissatisfaction. 

“Right…what was I saying?” The Doctor cast about, her voice a whole pitch higher than normal. “Oh right…Tasmindia, that’s where we were going!…beautiful sunrises, glorious metallic grasses, do NOT eat the chips…”

She continued to ramble, seeming to pointedly ignore Yasmin as the young woman slumped against the column, breathing hard.

Still peering at Yaz, Ryan leaned over to Graham. “That was a little odd, right?” He jerked his head at the Doctor, who was still talking a mile-a-minute, her hips unconsciously swaying to the beat of the faded song.

The old timer shrugged. “Mate, everything going on around here lately is odd…” Frowning, he glanced around before leaning closer and whispering to Ryan.

“Just to make sure though, did you hear that song from _Top Gun_ too?”


	9. Not to sound ungrateful, but just give me my clothes back: Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yaz needs a shower. The TARDIS sees an opportunity.

Team TARDIS trooped back inside the ship, all of them weary and one of them dirty.

“You just had to go and press one, didn’t you!” The Doctor chastised, slamming the doors behind them and stalking over to the console. “I said not to, but ya’ did it anyway!”

“How was I supposed to know that they would shoot gravy out of them?!” Ryan defended himself, ignoring Graham's chortle. “Sorry by the way, Yaz.”

Yasmin just shrugged, resigned to her sticky fate by now. Puddles of thick gelatinous goop pooled in her hair and clothes, already starting to solidify.

“That’s not gravy, it’s more of a tetra-bihedral silicon pus.” The Doctor put in helpfully, a bit of her frustration with Ryan melting away as she fawned over the substance. Yaz thought it was quite cute. The Doctor swiped a glob off of Yaz’s shoulder and examined it closely. “Not very tasty but quite good for patching up electrical grids…”

“Whatever it is, I just want to wash it off.” Yaz cut in, already making her way around the console so the others couldn’t see her blush. “Which way to a shower?”

“Just follow the hallway.” The Doctor called, waving her hand. “You should find one pretty soon. Feel free to take any clothes just hanging around.”

With some apprehension, Yaz entered the hallway. She hadn’t forgotten the ship’s frustrating tendency to send her to the wrong bedroom until she’d finally given in and just slept in the Doctor’s bed. But she needn’t have worried because the second door she encountered opened into a comfortable bathroom with a large showerhead hanging on the wall. A closet full of clean clothes was through another smaller doorway inside. 

Closing the door behind her, Yaz stripped immediately, grateful to be out of her disgusting clothes. The goop had even managed to ooze its way into her underclothes and she was just hoping the TARDIS somehow had female undergarments available. 

Pulling open the closet, she selected a pair of jeans and a large t-shirt to wear and carefully set them on a conveniently placed chair. To her surprise, several pairs of woman’s pants and brassieres of various sizes and styles were tucked inside a small alcove of the closet. A quick search found blissfully clean garments in her size. She added them to her pile and turned at last to the shower.

As she unpinned her hair, she kicked the mess of her soiled clothes up against the wall and stepped into the tub. 

The spray began immediately, and Yaz moaned in relief as warm water rinsed her body. There seemed to be soap mixed into the spray of water so she lathered herself quickly, paying particular attention to her hair. All of the wet globs slid right off of her in the torrent but the dried ones presented more of a problem. Yaz scrubbed at them with a pumice stone she found along the edge of the tub, gradually working each one free.

She lost track of time in the perfect shower, both mindlessly scrubbing and wondering where the water came from and went to on the ship. The comfort of getting clean eased her mind and she felt questions her conscious mind dared not ponder creeping out into her consciousness. 

_Did the Doctor shower? Was this her shower?_

Images from the infamous book came to mind but Yaz tamped them down. Not the time or the place. As if sensing her intentions, the water abruptly shifted to a cold spray. 

“Alright, alright…”

Yaz finished up quickly, not wanting to freeze and stepped away from the showerhead. The water ceased as she opened the off-white curtain and stepped out.

“Towel…” Yaz glanced around. “Towel…”

There was no fluffy towel in sight. 

“Oh come on…” She crossed her arms, starting to shiver. “You’ve got an entire closet in your shower but no towel?”

She turned towards the closet again. Maybe she had just missed the towels among all the clothes. 

She’d barely taken two steps towards the closet when the door behind her burst open. 

Yaz froze, too shocked to even cover up. 

_Oh please, please no…_

A telltale buzzing of a sonic realized her worst fear. Yaz turned slowly, her heart well and truly stopped. 

The Doctor glanced up briefly. “Oh, ‘ello Yaz.” Then she was back to fiddling with the circuits in her arms, all while Yaz stood there completely naked and drowning on air. 

“DOCTOR!” Yaz yelped, her voice cracking. 

The Doctor looked at her in confusion. “Wot?” The Time Lord’s eyes drifted from Yaz’s face. They made it some distance before the woman yelped and covered her face entirely, the circuits clattering to the floor.

“Oh! Oh my gosh, oh sorry, right…” She backed away but hit the suddenly closed door hard. “I thought…this room is usually the wiring closet, sorry…Yaz!”

Yaz struggled to pull the shower curtain around her, only to find that it was horrifically transparent.

The Doctor had taken one hand off of her face to fumble for the doorknob and Yaz caught her gaze before the Doctor violently squeeze her exposed eye shut. “I’ll just, I’m just going to…console room, going to…give you some time to get dressed…right!” With slightly more force than necessary, she yanked the door open and escaped the room in a whirlwind of movement.

As soon as the door slammed, Yaz sank to the floor. Her entire body felt like she’d just rolled around on hot coals and her insides like she’d swallowed a bucket of ice.

Why did it have to be her? Well, she supposed Ryan and Graham wouldn’t have been any less awkward but they could have laughed it off. How was she supposed to laugh this off?

She held her burning face in her hands until the cold of the bathroom floor was too much to handle. Might as well get dressed and try to sort this all out…

She glanced over towards the chair. Her heart sank. The chair had vanished. As had her change of clothes. 

“No…” Vainly, she glanced towards the closet. It had melted into the wall, leaving nothing but an off-white tile in its place. Desperate now, she looked for the pile of soiled clothing she’d stripped out of. 

No such luck.

Yaz sank against the edge of the tub, curled up and shivering in the cool air. 

“No towel…no clothes…now what?”

***

To be continued...


	10. Not to sound ungrateful, but just give me my clothes back: Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The TARDIS provides Yaz with an outfit. The Doctor reacts appropriately.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for leaving Yaz like that for a bit. But I hope this makes up for it. :)

Within minutes, Yaz was too cold to stay on the floor. She paced the small space in the bathroom, arms hugged tight across her chest and her teeth chattering. 

It was really hard not to think about what had just happened: how the Doctor had wandered in on her (while she was naked!), how her eyes had _lingered_ (or had Yaz imagined that?) and the furious blushing on both ends (definitely real on her part…). But Yaz was stoically focused on the slightly more important concern of not freezing to death due to lack of clothing.

She was usually pretty resourceful. But right now, she had literally nothing. Not a single stitch of clothing or linen or even the stupid shower curtain (it too had betrayed her by turning as transparent as cellophane) to cover up with. And trying to dash through the TARDIS halls butt-naked wasn’t going to happen; not with her current record of finding the room she desired on her first try.

So what now?

Yaz paused in her mindful pacing as a violent shiver wracked her body. “I know this is daft but…” She glanced around, rubbing her arms. “Given everything that’s happened around here lately, I have to at least suspect that you can hear me…” The walls gave no indication that they were in fact, listening. “And I’d really appreciate it if you’d just give me something…anything to keep from f…freezing.”

After several seconds of silence, Yaz sighed. Rubbing her arms more vigorously, she turned back towards the shower. 

“The Doctor wouldn’t be too happy if I got hypothermia.” She muttered, hating how petulant it sounded. 

With a slight click, the shower head rotated several degrees and warm air began pouring from it. Puzzled, Yaz stumbled under it and sighed in relief as the warm air dried her off. It was like standing under a huge version of a hand dryer in a public toilet.

After a minute or two, the gush of air stopped. Her body and hair now dry, Yaz was feeling slightly better. 

“Thank you.” She said, still not entirely convinced the TARDIS was actually responding. “What else you got? Anything to preserve what dignity I have left?” 

There was a slight dinging sound behind her and she whirled, half expecting to find the Doctor stumbling into the room through a brand new doorway. 

Instead, she found (with enormous relief) that the undergarments she had picked out earlier were back, sitting innocently on the chair. 

Blushing at thinking instantly of the Doctor, Yaz hurried to pull them on. They didn’t warm her up much but at least she was covered in case of any further potential run-ins.

“Alright…” Yaz turned slowly, unsure where to look and wondering if she should really be pressing her luck right now. “Anything else?”

As she completed a second turn, another new addition caught her eye. 

Hanging on the wall, right where the closet had been before was a pantsuit. Yaz’s mouth fell open. 

It was the kind of thing she would have worn to a police fundraiser or a wedding. The pants were flawlessly creased and high-waisted. The jacket was prim and form-fitting, with sleeves that billowed open on the end, accentuated by the almost absurdly low scoop cut of the undershirt. The outfit was a delicate cream color, the perfect complement to her skin. It looked brand new and ludicrously expensive. 

_It’s probably the Doctor’s…_ Yaz reasoned, trying not to squirm at the thought of the Time Lord in such an outfit. _Maybe I best not…_

Vainly, Yaz searched for the closet door again. But it appeared her luck as far as getting things from the TARDIS had run out. 

Yaz shrugged. Well, it was better than nothing. And the Doctor had said she could take anything laying around…

 

***

 

Before entering the console room, Yaz tugged self-consciously on the collar of the jacket, wishing it covered more of her chest. But, she recalled, the Doctor had recently seen way more of her than just her collarbone…

Face burning, Yaz huffed. She was going to be an adult about this. Her coworkers on the force caught glimpses of each other nearly naked all the time when changing, it was nothing to be weird about. Just…act natural.

Natural. The most incredible woman she’d ever met had seen her naked and Yaz still felt all tingly about it.

Squaring her shoulders, she marched herself into the console room with far more confidence than she had had before. The heels she’d found outside the bathroom door clicked loudly in the console room.

Ryan was tapping away on his phone in the corner, probably sorting photos from their last trip. Graham was hovering over an opening in the floor, holding several tools. Banging noises from the hole indicated the presence of the Doctor.

Ryan glanced up as Yaz approached and raised his eyebrows in surprise. 

“The TARDIS has formal wear now?”

Yaz shrugged, “Sorry, this was all I could find.”

“Really?” Ryan asked, sounding smug. “ _That_ was the only thing?”

Yaz glared icily at him. “Ryan if you stole my clothes, I swear…”

“I’ve done nothing!” Ryan insisted, looking somewhat intimidated. Maybe it was her police glare mixed with the pantsuit. “I’m just surprised that that was the only thing you found.”

Yaz tugged on the jacket again. “What’s wrong with it?”

“Nothin’ jus…” He indicated something behind him with a jerk of his head. Yaz just stared at him, not understanding.

“Oh, is Yaz back?” Came a cheerful voice from under the control panel. Yaz blushed but was glad that the Doctor wasn’t being immediately awkward about the shower encounter. The last thing the boys needed to know was what had happened in that shower. 

The Doctor popped up from the hole under the console, clutching her sonic and several loose wires. She began fusing the wires together with careful movements. “Great, now that Yaz is all clean we can…cahhaaannnoowwaa?” 

Her voice choked as she caught sight of Yaz. The sonic slipped from her grip, clattering to the TARDIS floor, still whirring. The wires in her hand sparked then exploded. 

“Oi! Doc!” Graham called as the ship shuddered. “Careful, there Banksy!” He dashed off, vanishing from sight.

The Doctor hadn’t moved. The smoking mass of wire in her hand might have been on another planet for all she noticed it. Slack-jawed, she stared at Yaz.

Somehow, Yaz felt more exposed with the woman looking at her like that then she had when she’d been naked. She squirmed, crossing her arms (then hurried uncrossing them as she realized the action had only made her cleavage more present against the tight cut of the suit).

After several seconds (during which the mess of wires only continued to burn), the Doctor suddenly seemed to realize what she was doing. 

“Oh right, oh right!” She held the flaming mass of wires away from her. “Fire. Fire! Graham, could you…!”

At that exact moment, Graham came dashing back into view, the nozzle of a fire extinguisher already belching out foam. He let loose a torrent of foam at the Doctor. Most of it caught her in the face but some managed to extinguish the small fire in her hand. 

“Right…” Came the Doctor’s resigned voice from under her new mask. “Thanks Graham.”

“…Sorry.” He apologized, offering the woman a hand up from the hole. The Doctor groped for it, half blind by the foam. 

“Wasn’t expectin’ that…” The Doctor said thickly, wiping a huge glob off of her face. “Think I could do with a shower now…”

Ryan stifled a snort but a look from Graham silenced him. 

Yaz, flustered at the mention of the infamous shower, ducked her head and furiously counted the pieces in the TARDIS floor. 

She made the mistake of glancing up after 14, and locking gazes with the Doctor. Unlike in the shower, this stare held. And that somehow made it torturous. 

Unsure what else to do, Yaz reached for her sleeve. “I can take it off…”

**“NOO!”**

The unexpected shout from the Time Lord had everyone in the console room tensing, even the Doctor. 

The alien pursed her lips, her tongue seemingly fighting her teeth for dominance. “It’s…it’s…” But for once, the woman was unable to voice an adjective or metaphor. “…I’ll be back.” She finally forced out, with a tight smile. 

The Doctor stalked past them, tiny flecks of foam punctuating her path. It wasn’t an angry retreat but it was far from a dignified one. Yaz swore the woman’s face was glowing as she brushed past her.

Ryan barely kept himself together until the sound of her boots faded down the hallway.

“Oh Yaz…” He chuckled, legitimately wiping a tear from his eye. “I would _pay_ to have gotten that all on video…”

Yaz glared at him, silencing him immediately.

“What was that all about?” Graham asked, seeming genuinely confused. He glanced at Yaz and his eyebrows rose. “Wow. Where’d you pick that up Yaz? It’s nice.”

“Thanks Graham.” Yaz acknowledged. She stalked over to the coat rack and threw parkas and sweaters off of it until her pink sweater fell into her grasp. As quick as she could, she wriggled out of the jacket and threw the sweater over her head. 

It was only once she was wrapped up in it, hugging herself again that she realized the misfortune of instinctively reaching for this particular sweater. 

It still smelled like the Doctor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was a bit of unexpected continuity in there with the sweater...
> 
> For a visual of Yaz's outfit: https://goo.gl/images/4aCqpK
> 
> I spent far too much time on this chapter just looking at images of Mandip in fancy dress...time well spent.

**Author's Note:**

> Send me prompts on tumblr!
> 
> http://hereidinathoreauwrites.tumblr.com/


End file.
